Preliminary results from a study funded by the US Department of Energy demonstrate that hydraulic fracturing has no effect on drinking water – results that contradict numerous other reports that prove the opposite.

For the past year, researchers at the DOE’s National Energy
Technology Laboratory (NETL) have monitored a fracking site in
western Pennsylvania, southwest of Pittsburgh. They allegedly
found no evidence that the chemical-laced fluids injected into
the ground made their way to the surface, the Associated Press
reports.

These fluids were injected into wellbores more than 8,000 feet
below the surface and were not detected above 3,000 feet. The
chemical-laced fluids, whose potential health effects are hotly
debated, thereby kept a considerable distance from aquifers that
provide drinking water.

The study was the first time that a drilling company allowed
federal researchers to inject tracers into the fracking fluid to
see if it spreads. Drilling advocates are likely to hail the
study as proof of the procedure’s safety, but it contradicts
numerous other studies that have demonstrated the opposite.

Rob Jackson, a scientist at Duke University, warned that a single
study should not serve as evidence that fracking is safe,
especially since the geology and fracking practices vary across
the US. He told the AP that the drilling company might have been
unusually meticulous at their research site, knowing that the
procedure was being closely monitored.

Jackson also explained that other aspects of the drilling process
can contaminate groundwater, including poor well construction,
accidental surface spills of chemicals and chemical-laced fluids,
and wastewater.

The depth of the well might also have an impact on the potential
effect on groundwater. Drilling at the well in western
Pennsylvnia occurred at 8,000 feet below ground, with groundwater
in the Marcellus Shale usually found at a depth of 300 feet.

Drilling at a fracking site in Pavillion, Wyoming, on the other
hand, occurs at a depth of 1,200 feet. Groundwater in that region
is acquired from depths of 800 feet, which means that the
fracking site is in close proximity to drinking water. The
Environmental Protection Agency in 2011 released a report
concluding that chemical-laced fracking fluids contaminated the
groundwater in Pavillion. But last month, the EPA dropped
its plans to further investigate the preliminary findings, and
instead allowed state officials – many of whom are drilling
advocates – to take over the study.

Although the EPA shied away from its investigation, its initial
results caused alarm and convinced environmental activists that
fracking can contaminate drinking water – especially at drilling
sites close to the surface.

A more recent study conducted by researchers at Duke University
examined fracking sites across northeastern Pennsylvania and
southern New York, where drilling usually occurs at greater
depths. The researchers found
that household drinking water that comes from any of the 141
wells near fracking sites has higher concentrations of methane,
which is the main component of natural gas. Researchers found
that 82 percent of the 141 water wells had elevated levels of
methane, and that ethane concentrations were 23 times higher in
drinking water at nearby homes.

“The methane, ethane and propane data, and new evidence from
hydrocarbon and helium isotopes, all suggest that drilling has
affected some homeowners’ water,” Jackson, the study’s main
author, wrote in a report.

At the fracking site in Pennsylvania, DOE scientists also
discovered that one hydraulic fracture traveled 1,800 feet from
the well bored. Most of the other fractures traveled just a few
hundred feet. Although the 8,000-foot Pennsylvania well was deep
enough to prevent the 1,800-foot fracture from having an impact
on groundwater, that might not be the case with other, more
shallow wells. The individual fracture was longer than the entire
depth of Pavillion’s well, where drilling occurs at 1,200 feet.
Scientists were unable to predict that fracture, and it remains
unclear if they can be prevented.

Although chemical-laced fluids might not have escaped from the
8,000-foot well in Pennsylvania, the DOE’s preliminary findings
may not be able to apply to all fracking sites, especially since
other government and university studies have evidence that
drilling may have contaminated drinking water.